Handicapped spots create parking dilemma

My ethical dilemma was, "Do I act like I'm a handicapped person, walking with a limp, or just walk normally?"

My ethical dilemma was, "Do I act like I'm a handicapped person, walking with a limp, or just walk normally?"

You would think parking in a handicapped spot should have been the dilemma. For one, I'm not handicapped, unless you count not having an appendix. But I was in a borrowed vehicle that had the sticker, the parking spot was in the shade — one of only a few and with the weather being in the upper 90s (out in New Mexico — dry heat, but still hot), and since the lunch crowd was just about done, I figured I could park there.

So, I get out of this SUV limping ever-so-slightly and hoping that no real handicapped person needed that spot.

I must confess that I struggle with the 4 trillion handicapped parking spots in the world. I know this isn't very compassionate for a preacher man, but there are so many times when I would prefer to park near a facility and there are more than 100 handicapped parking spaces with no vehicles in them.

Okay, I'm exaggerating a lot, but you know what I mean. I know the spaces are needed. I'm glad we have laws to protect those who need them (although I see a lot about whom I'd question — like a guy with a slight limp in a borrowed vehicle), but in my quasi-libertarian mind, I'd rather suggest that it be up to businesses to designate how many spaces they want. Those who wish to cater to this large group which often has money would be handicapped-friendly, designating sufficient spots in prime locations, like inside the store.

One day, while parking in the closest spot overlooking a sea of available handicapped spots and waiting for my wife to come out of a store, I thought of an idea. Why not replace the handicapped signs with digital ones that designated certain spots for handicapped, but when a lot of spots are open, the sign would make spots available for anyone? It would cost a lot to do this, but if IRS executives can have expense accounts for wine, diet pills and other nonsensical stuff, maybe . . . (I've gotten off track).

Was I wrong taking that spot despite being in a vehicle that had the sticker? The answer is absolutely yes. But I justified it. Sure is easy to justify things when it gives us an advantage. We can take almost anything, knead it together, turn it on its head and figure out a way so that we won't feel guilty. But we are guilty nonetheless. Justifying something in our own mind does not make it right.

Some years ago I thought about putting together public service commercials that would talk about "absolutes." One had a person in a drug store seeing something that had fallen from a shelf and about to pick it up and place it in their pocket — obviously stealing it. The video would freeze with an announcer saying: "There are absolutes and this is one of them!" Unfreeze video as the person puts the item back on the shelf.

Well, there are some absolutes. And I violated one of them despite my rationalization.

Now, I ought to move the same vehicle which is in a handicapped spot right in front of Starbucks. Hey, it was the only one available and it's hot out here.